Derrick.



No. 822,837. PATBNTED JUNE 5, 1906. I. F. FITZGIBBONS.

DERRICK. APPLICATION FILED mm. 1905.

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PATENTED JUNE 5 P. F. FITZGIBBONS DERRICK.

APPLIOATION FILED MAM. 1905.

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Svwomtoz Pfif'ifigibkons y akmmu l ll?! UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PATRICK F. FITZGIBBON S, OF CH ATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE.

D E R R l C K Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 5, 1906.

Application filed May 4,1905. Serial No. 258.842.

To all whom/it may concern:

Be it known that I, PATRICK F. FITZGIB- BoNs, a citizen of the UnitedStates of America, residing at Chattanooga, in the county of Hamiltonand State of Tennessee, have invented new and useful Improvements inDerricks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in traveling derricks, andparticularly to derricks of that class adapted for unloading logs andother heavy materials from railway-cars and stacking the same in pilesalongside the track.

Derricks of this character are provided with traction-wheels to run uponthe rails of a main track or siding, but usually upon aspecially-constructed track arranged parallel with the main track orsiding and, as ordinarily constructed, are of the low-down typethat is,mounted upon a frame or platform which is elevated but a short distanceabove the track-surface. The objection to derricks of this type is thatthe space between the track-rails is wasted, as the construction of suchderricks will not permit of the logs or other material being piled insaid space.

The object of the present invention is to provide a traveling derrickhaving a platform of sufficient width to run upon trackrails arrangedwidely apart and of sufficient height to permit of the stacking of thematerial between and on opposite sides of the rails and of the passageof the derrick over the stacked piles, thus securing economy instorage-space, and, further, to provide a novel construction andarrangement of gearing whereby the operation of the derrick mechanismand travel of the derrick back and forth upon the track may be readilyand conveniently controlled.

With the above and other objects in view the invention consists of theconstruction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter fullydescribed and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of a traveling derrickembodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the deck orplatform thereof with the gearing mounted thereon, the mast appearing inhorizontal section.

Fig. 3 is a detail view of the drive-belt and associated pulleys of thefriction-gearing for driving the traction-wheels. Fig. 4 is a detailside elevation of the friction-wheels and gears actuated thereby todrive the transmission-shaft of the traction-gearing. Fig. 5 is avertical transverse section taken on line 5 5 of Fig. 2, and Fig. 6 is alongitudinal section taken on line 6 6 of Fig. 2.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the numeral 1represents a deck or platform which may be of any preferredconstruction, but which, as shown, consists of a flooring laid uponparallel longitudinal beams 2, connected at suitable points bytransverse bars or beams 3 and suitably braced by tie bolts or irons 4,intermediately connected to the central longitudinal beam and fastenedat their ends to the side longitudinal beams and cross bars or beams.The deck or platform is supported in elevated position at each side byfront and rear standards or upright frames 5 and 6, each consisting of aseries of vertical bars or beams 7, fastened at their upper and lowerends to horizontal beams 8 and 9 The transverse bars or beams 3 of thedeck or platform are preferably arranged in closely-related rows orseries at the front and rear of the platform and rest upon and aresuitably secured to the upper horizontal beams 8 of the said endstandards or upright frames 5 and 6, whereby a strong and stablestructure is secured.

' The bottom horizontal beams 9 of the upright supporting-frames areprovided with bearings for the reception of short shafts or axles 10 and11, on which are journaled traction-wheels 12 and 13, the constructionin this respect being the same upon each front and rear upright frame,except that each rear upright frame has its traction-wheels 12 and 13spaced a greater distance apart than the wheels on the front uprightframe and provided between the two with bearings 14 for an axle 15,supporting intermediate tractionwheels 16. These traction-wheels runupon track-rails 17, and mechanism is provided for driving certain ofthe traction-wheels of the rear upright frames for running the derrickback and forth upon the rails, as hereinafter described. In practice thetrack-rails 17 are arranged widely apartsay a distance of thirty feet,morexor lesswhile the upright supporting-frames 5 and 6 are made of suchheight as to support the deck or platform 1 at a considerable elevation,an elevation exceeding the height to which the logs or other material isstacked in piles, so that in the stacking operation the materiallogs,for instancemay be continuously stacked on opposite sides of and betweenthe rails without interfering with the travel of the derrick.

Mounted upon the forward portion of the deck or platform is aderrick-frame comprising beams 18, whose upper ends converge and areconnected by a head-frame or crossbrace 19, to which are attachedsuitable guy rods or Wires 20. J ournaled at its upper end in a bearingin the head-block 19 and at its lower end in a bearing in a base-block21, fastened to the deck 1, is a mast 22, to which the inner end of aboom 23 is pivoted to swing in a vertical plane, as indicated at 24.Mounted upon the outer end of the boom is a pulley 25, around whichpasses a fall-rope 26, one end of said rope passing around a pulley 27upon a grapple 28, while the other end passes upward through an openingin the outer end of the boom and over a guide-sheave 29, thence downwardalong the upper surface of the boom and under a guide-sheave 30, fixedto one side of the mast 22, and thence to a winding-drum 31. Alsoattached to the outer end of the boom 23 is a guide-sheave 32, aroundwhich passes a boom-line 33, one end of said line being fixed to thehead-block 19, as indicated at 34, the line thence passing over andaround the pulley 32, and thence backward and downward overguide-sheaves 35 and 36, carried, respectively, by the headblock andmast and connected at its opposite end to a winding-drum 37. By means ofthe rope 26 and drum 31 the grapple 28 may be raised and lowered, whilethe rope or line 32 and drum 37 permit corresponding movement of theboom 23 on its pivotal connection 24, so that the grapple and boom maybe adjusted as desired in the operation of the apparatus to be broughtinto position to be en gaged with and to deposit the log or other objectwhich is to be moved from point to point in the unloading and stackingoperation.-

Fixed to the lower end of the mast 22 is a pulley 38, around which iswound the intermediate portion of a boom-swinging rope 39, the ends ofsaid rope passing rearwardly in contact with guide-sheaves or idlers 40,mounted on the platform and being connected and reversely wound at theirends to and upon winding drums or spools 41 and 42, arranged adjacent tothe drums 31 and 37.

Mounted upon the deck or platform 1 is a supporting bed or frame 43, inwhich are j ournaled shafts 31, 37, and 41, to which the drums 31, 37,41, and 42 are keyed or otherwise rigidly connected, the drums 41 and 42being mounted to turn in the same direction upon the same shaft 41.These shafts are extended at one end and carry drive-pinions 31, 37, and41, each pinion being loosely mounted upon. its respective shaft andadapted to be locked thereto by a suitable clutch 44, adapted to bethrown into and out of action by a suitable controlling-lever, theclutch-controlling lever of the pinion 31 of the drive-shaft 31 beingindicated at 31 in Fig. 1. The gears 37 and 41 intermesh with anintermediate idler 45, while the gear 37 is in turn arranged to meshwith a drivepinion or gear-wheel 46, which also meshes with the pinion31, thus forming a train of gears driven by the pinion 46 and throughwhich motion is communicated to the respective winding-drums. Thedrive-gear 46 is carried by a driveshaft 47,0perated by an engine 48,adapted to be supplied with steam from a boiler 49 and in practice iscontinuously operated in one direction or the other to operate thewinding-drums, which latter may be individually thrown into and out ofaction by 'means of their controlling-clutch devices.

It will be observed that while both winding-drums 41 and 42 are keyed tothe same shaft 41 to turn in the same direction the reverse winding ofthe ends of the cable 39 thereon will effect the movement of said cablein one direction or the other, according to the direction in which theshaft revolves, so that motion may be communicated to the mast 22 toswing the same with the boom 23 laterally on either side of thederrick-frame. In order to impart motion to the driving traction-wheelsof the derrick, suitable drivinggearing driven by the drive-shaft 47 isprovided, and this gearing is constructed and arranged so as to beconveniently reversed, so that the derrick may be moved along thetrack-rails 17 in either direction. Arranged in advance of thebearing-frame 43 and par allel with the drive-shaft 47 is acounter-shaft 50,carrying pulleys 51 and 52, the pulley 51 beingconnected by a drive-belt 53 with a pulley 54, fixed to one end of theshaft 47. Arran ed longitudinally at one side of and in parallelrelation to the frame 43 is a drive-belt 55, which passes around thepulley 52 and also around a pulley 56, mounted upon a shaft 57. Theupper stretch of the pulley 55 also passes over a guide-sheave or idler57 and under a friction drive-pulley 58, fixed to a shaft 59, arrangedin advance of and parallel with the shaft 57, this arrangement of thebelt causing the two pulleys 56 and 58 to be driven in unison inopposite directions. The shafts 57 and 59 are provided withoppositely-disposed friction-wheels 60 and 61, adapted to transmitmotion to an intermediate friction drivegear 62, mounted upon areversing countershaft 53, disposed on a line between the said shafts 57and 59. The shaft 63 is journaled its opposite end in an eccentricbearing 65,'

journaled in a bearing-block 66, said eccentric bearing being providedwith an adjusting handle or lever 67, by which it may be adjusted tochange the position of the shaft 63 and throw the friction-wheel 62 intoengagement with either friction drive-gear 60 61, thus permitting theshaft 63 to be driven in either direction at will without changing thedirection of movement of the shafts 50 and 57.

The shaft 63 carries a spur-pinion 68, which meshes with an idler 69,which turns in its course of movement in a slot 70, formed in the deckor platform 1, and meshes with a gear-wheel 71, arranged below the deckand fixed to a transverse traction or drive shaft 72, journaled at itsopposite ends in bearings 73, fixed to the upper horizontal bars 8 ofthe rear standards or upright supportingframes 6. The shaft 72 carriesat each end a sprocket-pinion 74, around which passes a sprocket chainbelt 75, which also engages and passes around sprocket-wheels 76 and 77,fixed to the axles 10 and 11 of the front and rear traction-wheels 12and 13 upon the said rear upright supporting-frames 6. Bythisarrangement the chain belt is arranged in the form of a triangular loopand imparts motion from the shaft 72 to the rear sets of traction-wheels12 and 13 to run the derrick in either direction along the track-rails17, according to the direction of movement of the shaft 63.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, the construction and mode of operation of thedevice will be readily understood, and it will be seen that in operationthe boom 23 may be raised and lowered and swung laterally of thetrackway or at either side of the derrick to engage the grapple 28 witha log or other object to be piled and that the adjustment of thefall-rope 26 through the medium of the drum connected therewith alsopermits the grapple to be adjusted as occasion requires for convenientengagement with and deposit of the load.

In the use of the present device the track rails 17 are laid a widedistance apart, as before described, alongside the main track or sidingof a railway on which the cars containing the logs or other material tobe unloaded and piled are arranged, and the logs or other objects aresuccessively removed from the cars and stacked into piles. Theconstruction of the ordinary low down typeof unloading-derrick does notpermit logs or other objects to be stacked in a continuous pile on bothsides of and along and across the tramway, as the deck or platform ofsuch derricks is not arranged at a sufficient elevation to clear thepile. By, however, mounting the deck or platform 1 ofthe prescut deviceat a comparatively high elevation upon the elongated uprightsupportingframes 5 and 6 the logs or other material to be stacked orpiled may be deposited in the space between the track-rails 17, as wellas on opposite sidesthereof, thus utilizing a large amount of spaceordinarily wasted. In practice it is preferred to space the trackrailsat least thirty feet apart and to employ a fifty-foot boom which willpermit the logs or other material to be piled in a space approximatelyone hundred feet in width including the width of the track, the elevatedheight of the deck or platform 1 permitting the derrick to be run backand forth over the stack or pile of logs disposed between thetrack-rails. In this way economy of space is secured, as the spacebetween the trackrails may be used for storage purposes.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is 1. In atraveling derrick, the combination of an elevated deck or platform,front and rear end frames supporting said platform, track-wheels carriedby said end frames, each rear end frame being provided with a pair ofspaced track-wheels and an intermediate track wheel, the former havingsprocket pinions connected therewith, a drive-shaft upon the platform, acountershaft below the platform, gearing between said shaft including amember extending through an opening in the platform, sprocketgears uponthe respective ends of the countershaft disposed above the intermediatewheels on the rear end frame, and looped triangular chains connectingsaid pinions on the counter-shaft with the pinions on the pair of spacedtrack-wheels of each rear end frame.

2. In a derrick, the combination of a deck or platform, front and rearend supports at the opposite sides of said platform, each of saidsupports comprising uprights and horizontal beams connecting saiduprights. at their upper and lower ends, cross-beams supporting theplatform and resting upon the upper horizontal beams of the endsupporting frame, a central longitudinal beam bearing against saidcross-beams, tie-bolts intermediately connected to said centrallongitudinal beam and fastened at their ends to the transverse beams,wheels carried by the end supporting uprights, gears connected withcertain of the wheels, and driving mechanism for imparting motion tosaid wheels, in either direction.

3. In a traveling derrick, the combination of track-rails, aderrick-frame provided with traction-wheels to travel on thetrack-rails, said rails and frame being relatively arranged to form awide and deep stackingspace between the rails, derrick mechanism carriedby said frame, a drive-shaft for operating said mechanism,derrick-controlling mechanism actuated by said shaft, cOunterlowercounter-shaft and operatively con 10 shafts arranged above and below thesupnected with certain of said traction-wheels.

porting-frame, a driving connection between In testimony whereof I aflixmy signature the driving-shaft and upper counter-shaft, in presence oftwo witnesses. v drive-gearing between said upper and lower PATRICK RFITZGIBBONS' counter-shafts, said. gearing including connecting elementsoperating in-an opening in l Witnesses:

the platform, a reversible friction-gearing, M. E. TORPHY,

and propelling mechanism actuated by the W. W. FITZGIBBONS.

